Today, my 74th birthday, is the first time I think I’ve ever been able to say, with feeling, “I’m so glad that I was born!” I learned several years ago to make that comment to others on their birthdays; celebrating who a person is, after all, is the main purpose of birthday celebrations – not counting years – an irrelevant pastime if ever there was one! Today, though, I finally felt – certainly for the first time in this way – the oneness of all life as Love. I received the amazing gift of spending the day being Love – giving and receiving, circulating, smiling inwardly as much as visibly. At One with my spirit-self, at the same time I was appreciating equally the physical delights that having a body has added to my experience of being, I suddenly realized anew why embodiment is such a desirable gift: it adds a whole new dimension in which to know God. It allows me to unite with beauty, joy, and presence while also reveling in the illusion of being a separate and appreciative observer.

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I am grateful for this amazing day – my best birthday ever.

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About Rev. Rosemary Hyde, Ph.D.

I am a grandmother, a classical homeopath, a mystical poet, and an interfaith minister. I also have a large, enduring place in my heart for Paris. I first spent time in Paris in 1961, as a Fulbright scholar. I remained in France for three years, living also in Toulouse and in Nancy. I have revisited France and Paris multiple times since then, and have come to know central Paris reasonably well. I grew up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where there were many Franco-Americans, and their language fascinated me. I was fortunate in 6th grade, when my family moved, to find myself in a Catholic French speaking girls' school, where I had the wonderful fortune of becoming bilingual. It still feeds my soul deeply, to visit Paris, speak French, and reconnect with the little French girl in me.
I am serving presently as co-minister at Unity Center of Peace in Chapel Hill, NC. I give talks one or two Sundays a month -- please go to the website, www.unitychapelhill.org, and sign up for the weekly e-news to learn what's going on -- special events, seasonal interfaith ceremonies, and Sunday themes and talks. My vision for the Unity Chapel Hill ministry and for myself is to become a loving, uniting presence in the lives of all those who cross paths with us. That's all there is, really -- loving presence. And so it is. Amen.
My goal as a minister is to add richness to life for those who resonate to more than one religious tradition or to none -- those with mixed religions as well as the unchurched, untempled, and unmosqued.
All of us, whatever our cultural allegiances, hunger for and need support in finding the transcendent joy that's ours to find in this earthly life. All of us need and want to celebrate beautifully the great and small milemarker moments. All of us crave the beauty of prayer as an expression of our participation in universal love. All of us wish to learn a greater vision, to see our lives opening to the Divine. All of us desire deeply to find serenity and peace that lasts no matter what happens today and tomorrow.
This is the meaning of Transcendessence. We find the essence of spirit and transcend the narrow constraints of our bodies and egos. Join us today by subscribing, so you won't miss a single poem, message, prayer, or meditation.

2 Responses to Seventy Fourth Birthday

For the last few years, I’ve slowly been adding poems to a blog. I’m forwarding the latest blog entry. As you can see, these days, with all that’s going on at UCP, I rarely get the time to sit down and reflect enough to write and edit – which I find to be a deep, meditative pleasure.